Tigers celebrate with champagne after beating Guardians to make ALDS
The Detroit Tigers celebrate beating the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday, Oct. 2, in Cleveland to advance to the ALDS.
With the Detroit Tigers not wanting to pitch ace Tarik Skubal on short rest, and deferring away from starters Casey Mize and Jack Flaherty on even shorter rest, the team didn’t have an obvious choice for who could start Game 1 of the ALDS against the Seattle Mariners.
In the end, the Tigers settled on rookie Troy Melton, who is about to make his first postseason start on Saturday, Oct. 4 against the Mariners at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.
Melton has had a short but solid start to his career, making his debut on July 23 with a five-inning start in a 6-1 loss against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The rookie came back strong in his next start, however, pitching seven shutout innings in a 5-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Overall, Melton has a 3-2 record with a 2.76 ERA over 45⅔ innings pitched. Four of his 16 appearances have come as a starter, while the other 12 have come as a reliever — and often in high-leverage situations.
Here are three things to know about the Tigers’ Game 1 starter.
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Troy Melton was a fourth-round draft pick
After four years pitching at San Diego State, Melton was the Tigers’ fourth-round selection in the 2022 draft, the same draft that landed the team infielder Jace Jung (first round). So far, however, Melton has been Detroit’s standout pick in that draft.
The righty rocketed up the minors, putting up a 2.74 ERA in 92 total innings at Low-A Lakeland, High-A West Michigan and Double-A Erie in his first full professional season in 2023. Two years later, Melton made only 10 starts at Erie and six starts at Triple-A Toledo before the Tigers called him up to the big leagues. And it didn’t take long for Melton to start showing results.
Troy Melton features an elite fastball
Melton’s biggest weapon is his four-seam fastball, which he threw about 40% of the time in the regular season, according to Statcast. The 6-foot-4 righty also has a sinker and a cutter in his arsenal, bringing his total fastball usage to 63% on the season.
It’s easy to see why. With his four-seamer averaging 96.8 MPH of velocity, Melton lands in the 86th percentile among all MLB pitchers, bested on the Tigers starting staff only by Tarik Skubal (97.4 MPH, 91st percentile). Melton’s four-seamer and slider both have positive run value, which has made him a versatile addition also coming out of the bullpen for the Tigers.
Basically, when Melton is on the mound, you’re going to see a lot of heat.
Troy Melton gave up four runs in his only playoff appearance
Melton doesn’t exactly have the most sterling postseason record so far.
The young righty made his postseason debut on Wednesday, Oct. 1, in the Tigers 6-1 loss to the Cleveland Guardians in Game 2 of the wild-card series. Melton entered with the game tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, and the Guardians took advantage.
Second baseman Brayan Rocchio broke the tie with a one-out solo home run off of Melton, and Melton followed that by giving up back-to-back doubles to Steven Kwan and Daniel Schneemann, making the score 3-1. He ended up getting charged with four runs in the game while recording only one out, which means his career postseason ERA is an astronomical 108.00.
But don’t expect the Mariners to score 100 runs off of Melton — he’ll likely be on a short leash with plenty of help behind him for Game 1 of the ALDS.
You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.
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